Live cattle shipments resume in Townsville

The first shipment of live cattle from north Queensland to Indonesia in nearly four months has begun loading at the Townsville port.

The MV Ocean Shearer is taking on 7,000 head of cattle from north Queensland properties before heading to Indonesia via Darwin in the Northern Territory.

Exporter Wellard Group says the cattle are bound for two audited and accredited processing companies.

The last shipment of cattle for slaughter left the Townsville port in May.

The State Member for Dalrymple, Shane Knuth, says the four-month delay in live exports through Townsville has hit the cattle industry hard.

"We're just slowly starting to get back on its feet but it's going to take time," he said.

"Where there's confidence back in the industry, it's just unfortunate that a bad decision was made over a video film clip."

He says it has been almost a year since local graziers have been able to sell cattle to the trade.

"We had a massive big wet, then a dirty great cyclone, and one of the things is coming from that industry is that they were just hoping for a break, and then they were hammered by this live export ban," he said.

"It's probably been about 12 months since these people have been able to get on their feet.

"We just hope that there is nothing else that's going to pop up that's going to impede anything."